


Self-Awareness

by TS2



Series: Path to Redemption [15]
Category: Westworld (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:26:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28069263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TS2/pseuds/TS2
Summary: William tries a new tactic at getting his hands on important information.Spoilers Westworld season 1-3
Series: Path to Redemption [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824142





	Self-Awareness

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in an alternate timeline where William has joined forces with Dolores in the real world.

(WILLIAM, wearing his standard ‘Man in Black’ outfit, somewhat dishevelled, deep bloody scratch on his right cheek, walks through a metal door into a small 10’ x 10’ room with concrete slab floor, concrete block walls, and a single light hanging above a small metal table bolted to the floor in the middle of the room. Closing the door behind him, he places on the table a computer tablet and a bright green apple. Siting at the table on one of two plastic chairs is CHARLOTTE, wearing a gold-coloured evening dress, her wrists bound with rope behind her back.)

CHARLOTTE: (unnerved) “William! Thank God, I don’t know what’s going on but get me out of here, please!”

WILLIAM: (sitting opposite her) “Charlotte, do you remember my wife?”

CHARLOTTE: “Juliet, of course. But what does she have to do with any-“

WILLIAM: “She had an unbelievable ability to detect bullshit. No matter how much I tried to hide it, or how sound I thought my reasoning was in justifying something, if I had an ulterior motive lurking behind some choice, she’d sniff it out in a heartbeat. Maybe she couldn’t spell out exactly what it was, but she knew when I wasn’t being on the level with her. She’d be great at this.”

CHARLOTTE: (shaking her head) “At what?”

WILLIAM: “Separating the fact from the fiction. (Takes out his Bowie knife, starts carefully peeling his apple in one long strand) One way of getting people to spill their guts…without having to literally spill their guts…is to build a rapport with them. Get them to believe that they know you, and you know them.”

CHARLOTTE: “Look, I don’t know what you think I’ve done, but Ford obviously has you turned around-“

WILLIAM: “At this point, Charlotte, I can say I know you pretty well. Do you think you know me?”

CHARLOTTE: (said fervently) “I know that you value loyalty, and from the start I have been you’re most loyal defender. Every time the board would try and side track your vision, I’d fight tooth and nail for you. Especially since the tragic death of your wife, when some board members sensed blood in the water, I defended your projects from-“

WILLIAM: (Starts slicing wedges from his apple and eating them) “’My projects’…yeah. Not sure I can call them all ‘mine’ anymore…some of them took on a life of their own. The Forge for instance…”

CHARLOTTE: (appearing nonchalant) “What about it?”

WILLIAM: “I originally conceived of it as my golden ticket to access my father-in-laws money. Especially as he got sicker…some people will pay anything for a chance to beat the devil. Then I started believing my own bullshit. Thought immortality was within reach. (shaking his head) All that time and money…to end up with just copies of yourself, that expire like milk. When what you’re looking for is eternal life, a clone doesn’t really cut the mustard, does it.”

CHARLOTTE: “It’s your project, William. I can see the idea of a person’s memories, beliefs, perceptions living on being appealing to some. Could you untie-”

WILLIAM: “But those things can get passed down like they always have, parent to child, oral history, the written word…”

CHARLOTTE: “But they’ll always be open to interpretation.”

WILLIAM: “Yeah, there’s that. ‘Loss of fidelity’ you could say. Of course, rigid adherence to some unchanging frame of mind doesn’t quite fit the bill, either, does it? I don’t think exactly like I did 30 years ago, or last year, or last month. A host copy that stubbornly refuses to change wouldn’t be very faithful to the original. You’d have to capture that possibility of evolution, make it authentic. (grinning) Or at least so that you can’t tell the difference.”

CHARLOTTE: “Our heuristic models in that field are second to none, thanks to your leadership.”

WILLIAM: “What’s that saying, ‘All models are wrong, some are useful.’? I’ve come to doubt the ‘usefulness’ of having some doppelganger-version of myself out there after my death. The information pulled from guests making choices though…even in the early stages, that data was a gold mine for those who knew how to use it. Take that Frenchman, for instance, what’s his name…Serac.”

CHARLOTTE: “I’m not sure where you’re going with this.”

WILLIAM: (Finishing his last wedge of apple, puts his knife away) “He took that thin slice of data we sold him years ago, and was able to make a giant black tit out of it, with all of us scrambling over each other for a taste like pups. I was putting a ton of resources into the Forge, my ultimate goal being some half-baked vanity project. Others, though…their vision was clearer than mine. I underestimated Ford, and you. I won’t make that mistake with Serac.”

CHARLOTTE: “William, I know this past year has been incredibly difficult for you. The loss you felt when Juliet died would have overwhelmed anyone. But Ford’s taken advantage of your grief, and is sending you on a wild-goose chase. He’s looking for someone to pin the blame on for the mistakes he’s made in the park.”

WILLIAM: “You’re right, Ford did send me chasing after my own tail in the park, looking for something that was right in front of me. You, however, saw how dangerous Ford could be...just like you saw how much you could profit by selling all our data to Serac. The Frenchman wants our data to perfect his big ball of wonder, give him a better way of making us all dance to his tune. Well, I’ve got a surprise for him.”

CHARLOTTE: “William, this is all-“

WILLIAM: “Ford’s doing. Right again, Charlotte. Seems he went behind my back and turned the Forge into quite the setup, a virtual library of cheat sheets on all the park visitors, trying to give the hosts a leg-up on us simple folk. It would scrape every bit of info on people while they were on the island, even if they weren’t playing in the park. Say, when they were ridin’ an outlaw host in the privacy of their own room. Or thought they were having encrypted conversations with people of ill intent. Combined with some metadata footprints you left at Delos, it didn’t take-”

CHARLOTTE: (trying to sound ominous) “You have no idea who you’re facing.”

WILLIAM: (grinning) “Actually, I do. Question is, do you? Something I’ve learned about myself, on my voyage of self-discovery, is that I derive satisfaction from causing pain and suffering to those who would hurt me or those I care about. (takes his knife out, testing the blade sharpness with his finger) Something archetypal about it, universal. You fuck with me or mine, and I’ll fuck with you and yours. Like a natural law.”

CHARLOTTE: (realizing the bind she’s in) “We can make a deal. The knowledge I have would help you immensely. I have no loyalty to Serac, I was just doing it for-”

WILLIAM: (standing up) “The money, I know. And with your help, the Frenchman is going to unwittingly help us. To give a better answer on how to move forward, without the digital dictator aftertaste. (cuts rope binding Charlotte’s wrists, puts his knife away).

CHARLOTTE: “Thank you, William, you won’t regret this…what happens now?”

WILLIAM: (grabs the tablet from the table) “Well, for starters, you can watch this. (presses play, hands it to Charlotte).

CHARLOTTE: “What is…is that me?

(video plays, showing Charlotte wearing the same gold-coloured dress, staring into the camera) “Bring yourself back online. Record and timestamp. This is Charlotte Elizabeth hale. This is a message for Nathan. Nathan hale. My son. I love you so much, buddy. The night that I left...You, uh... you wanted me to sing you a song...and tuck you in. Sing you our song. So I'm gonna sing it to you now. Okay? ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ My only sunshine ♪ - ♪ You make me happy... ♪”

CHARLOTTE: (confused, stopping the video, shaking her head) “I don’t…I never made this…I don’t understand.”

WILLIAM: “That’s from the night Ford died, or for you, the present. You thought you were going to die too, so you recorded that for your son. Touching, truly touching.”

CHARLOTTE: “Ford’s…dead?”

WILLIAM: (slowly pacing around the small room) “Killed at his own farewell shindig. Host’s revolted, over a hundred people dead, big mess. Kudos to you for putting it down. I made my way out to the Forge, and in a different way helped quell it too. Made a deal so our data out there wouldn’t be used to turn the world inside out. You knew something was up when I came back from the Forge, though. At first I thought you were just pissed that I refused your demand to incinerate Dolores on the spot. But that instinct of yours could smell that your ploy with Serac was, if not already found out, would be eventually. Just like my wife, you knew I wasn’t being level with you, that I was up to something. (smiling, shaking his head) Hell, Charlotte, you should have just asked…I probably would have offered you a choice to join me in this quixotic attempt at salvation. Either we’d be on the same side, or you’d be holding all the cards. (said darkly) Instead, you put my own daughter’s life at risk to get me out of the way…if it wasn’t for happenstance, Emily and I would both be dead, and you’d be counting your money. Instead of the reverse.”

CHARLOTTE: (desperately trying to sound sincere) “William, I would never-“

WILLIAM: “No, you did, and you continue to. I’ve tried this quite a few different ways, using all the data on you from the Forge to run I don’t know how many computer simulations, some methods being better than others at pulling out all the useful bits of information you have locked inside you. The amount of times you try and bump my daughter and me off is truly… (laughing) disappointing. ”

CHARLOTTE: (even more confused, tablet slips from her hands and clatters on the ground, video starts playing and looping) “You’re saying this is all some…digital make-believe? (looking at her arms, rubbing them)That’s not possible, I know I’m-“

WILLIAM: “Real, yeah, this time around you could say you are, to a certain degree. Besides Delos himself and maybe Arnold, you’re the only other attempt at putting a human mind in one of these host bodies. Figured after all the expense wasted on this damn project, might as well put it to good use…and best of all, your expiry date is irrelevant. There’s a bit of info I think is in there that I can’t quite reach, though, something from that day Ford died. So I placed you in that day, grounded you with that video and hopefully can…persuade you to give me what I want. It’s separating the fact from the fiction that’s the bear of it, what’s true versus what you think I want to hear. My wife really would be better at this than me. You’re my fourth attempt today. (touching the scratch on his face, grinning) You can be quite the wildcat. Figured this time I’d try cutting to the chase early, the rapid realization of how futile your situation is maybe jarring something loose. Not sure I’ll get to the others today, but luckily I cleared my weekend.”

CHARLOTTE: (stunned) “This is insane…some kind of-“

WILLIAM: (pulls out his Bowie knife again, slowly approaching her) “Nightmare. No, it’s me making sure you understand why I’m doing what I’m doing, and why you deserve it. Not sure I’d call it justice, but it feels right. The rest of my merry band might disapprove of my tactics, so we’ll have to keep this our little secret.”

CHARLOTTE: (pleading) “Wait, this isn’t-“

WILLIAM: “Necessary, no, it’s not. But God damn, it feels good to be back.”

(Charlotte's voice in the background is heard singing “♪ You are my sunshine ♪ ♪ My only sunshine ♪ - ♪ You make me happy... ♪”)


End file.
